Shadow Slave

Even after living through the horrors of the Southern Campaign and witnessing the chilling resolution of the Battle of the Black Skull, Sunny still paled at the sight of the enormous swarm of Corrupted Beasts. There were too many of them to count, but there had to be tens of thousands of translucent crustaceans advancing toward the island.

Even Nephis seemed taken aback- a rare sight, and not a welcome one. She instinctively outstretched a hand, as if summoning a sword could save them from the plague of Corrupted abominations.

"It's... it's alright."

Her voice was even but lacked confidence.

Sunny forced out a faint smile.

"How exactly is this alright?"

Nephis lingered for a moment.

"These creatures don't seem capable of leaving the water."

Sunny closed his eyes for a moment. Yes, the abominable krill were probably incapable of crawling onto the island and devouring them. However, they were more than capable of devouring the Azure Serpent. And with the old snake gone, nothing would prevent the dark butterfly from landing on the shell of the slain Great Monster.

"That's right. You are going to die."

He flinched and glared at the Sin of Solace, who had appeared out of nowhere and looked at him with dark glee.

The sword wraith laughed, and then whispered:

"Better yet, you are going to watch Nephis die. Isn't it poetic?"

Sunny tried to ignore the vile apparition, but this time, it was much harder than usual. With the words of the Sin of Solace still echoing in his ears, he forced himself to look away and stare at the river.

Serpent lowered its head stubbornly, huffed, and suddenly shot toward

and fury. That snake... did not know when to retreat. Or rather, it never wanted to. Its lust for slaughter and destruction seemed much greater than

admirable, really. What

of lunatic to make a vice into a perverse virtue. The Azure

going to fight tens of thousands of Corrupted abominations? No matter how large its maw was and how sharp its fangs were, the serpent could only crush that many krill in its jaws. A dozen at a

it took, a thousand Corrupted creatures were going to sink their teeth into the Great Beast's flesh. Even though there was a vast gap between the two Ranks, it was not as insurmountable as that between the

been different if the mad beast possessed unnatural powers, but it only possessed inconceivable physical might. Not all

And yet, and yet...

couldn't help but root for the great river

on, old

was closing in on the rushing krill swarm, moments away

yet, it was

second before the Azure Serpent plunged into the mass of translucent krill, it dove down. In the next moment, Sunny and Nephis swayed, pushed back by the shockwave of a demented, enraged roar. Even distorted by the mass of water, it was still loud enough to make their ears ring and their bones

The krill, however...

much closer to the source of the roar, the shockwave spread through the swarm like a battering ram. Sunny's eyes widened when he

swarming abominations...

Azure Serpent, were paralyzed completely, while those that had been further away were at

then a little further still. He

and a sudden explosion sent countless tons of water rushing outward in a crushing wave. The sonic boom was even louder than the

were completely obliterated by the tail of

more were already rushing from all

jaws opened and snapped, grinding a hundred

a

drill. Sunny did not see how this could help the Great Beast against the swarm

forming a long whirlpool along the length of its colossal